How to cook risotto

Risotto is a traditional Italian rice dish best made with short or medium-grained rice, which are stickier than long-grained ones. The main gist of this dish is to consistently stir and add stock to the rice until the rice absorbs the stock and becomes rich and creamy.

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The following is a simple recipe to make your first and very own risotto.

Here are the items you will need:

1. Wooden spoon (It's better to use a wooden spoon rather than a metal spoon so as not to break the rice grains)

2. Heavy bottomed saucepan

3. Arborio Rice (Found in most supermarkets.)

4. Butter

5. Onion

6. Olive Oil

7. Chicken Stock (4 times the amount of rice you intend to cook)

8. Parmesan Cheese

Step 1: Heat your saucepan over a gentle fire and add in about 1 tablespoon of butter. Finely chop the onion, and add about 1/2 cup into the saucepan. Keep stirring until the onion turns translucent.

Step 2: Add in the rice and a bit of olive oil, and stir it to coat it with butter and onion. Keep stirring until you notice the rice change from white to translucent. You may add a little salt and pepper to add more flavouring.

Step 3: Your rice is now ready to soak up the chicken stock. Gently pour the stock until it just covers the rice. Stir the contents and bring it to boil.

Step 4: When the rice is almost dry, repeat step 3. Continue doing this until the rice is cooked, you will notice the change in texture from watery to creamy. If you are unsure of when the rice will be ready, you can get a spoon and taste it, the rice should be moist but not hard. If you run out of chicken stock in the process, do not fret, you can replace the stock with water, it would not change the taste drastically.

Step 5: When the rice is ready, you can grate some Parmesan cheese over it and drizzle some olive oil. The dish is now ready to be served.

The recipe above is one of the most basic ways of cooking risotto. Once you are sure of how to cook the rice, you can transform risotto into many different forms according to your likes and dislikes.